Re: Machines that think...

Ted Atkinson (tbatkinson@WORLDNET.ATT.NET)
Fri, 16 May 1997 14:40:50 +0000

>>MACHINES THAT THINK AND MACHINES THAT FLY
>>On the issue of whether the chess-playing computer that beat world champion
>>Garry Kasparov can "really think," Yale computer science professor Drew
>>McDermott says: "Saying that Deep Blue doesn't really think is like saying
>>an airplane doesn't really fly because it doesn't flap its wings." (New
>>York Times 14 May 97)
>

Beneath this media savvy comment on the part of Prof. McDermott lurks
humankind's enduring hopefulness to find company in the lonely world of
self-consciousness. We act out this desire by reaching for new
technological heights and, in essence, trying to create something to think
for us--to bear the burden--and perhaps do a more efficient job of it. More
often than not, we go the way of Icarus--in a worse predicament than we
found ourselves in the first place. Another prevalent means of acting out
the desire, as Percy recognized, is trying to join the animals (e.g.,
"talking" to dolphins). Despite these efforts, we wind up like Kasparov,
who literally pulled his hair out in frustration. In our end is our
beginning--indeed.

Ted Atkinson